French Riviera, Hyeres
Cruising Log of French Riviera: Hyères - Monaco - Hyères
Contributed By: Jacques & Nita Steininger - Santa Barbara, CA - May 2003
This is the log of our 2-week sailing charter on the French Riviera in May 2003 on Itapoa 2, a Moorings 464. This is a 46-ft Bénéteau with four cabins and two heads.
We picked up the boat at the Moorings' base in Hyères, near Toulon and sailed East along the coast all the way up to Monaco, then back to return the boat in Hyères.
Even though we had visited the French Riviera by land many times before, this was our first time by sea. We went in May, before high season, and enjoyed uncrowded seas and front row locations in famous harbors.
Whenever possible, we show prices for budget planning and to dispel the impression that France is expensive.
All prices reported are in euros (€). In May 2003, € 1.00 was worth $1.15. By law, all restaurants in France must include taxes and service on the menus. If you pay by credit card, there is no line for gratuity. Visa and MasterCard are accepted everywhere, even for port fees. US $ are generally not accepted but ATM machines are available everywhere. It’s not advisable to change money before leaving the US.
May 3 – Paris to Hyères
On Saturday morning, we flew Air France non-stop from Orly airport in Paris to the Toulon-Hyères airport. Being over 60, we got senior citizen, half-rate fares of € 60 each, one way.
Upon arrival in Hyères, we were picked up at the airport by a friendly young lady from the Moorings staff. The base manager gave us a short briefing, charts, a comprehensive Pilote Côtier in French and a Moorings Sailing Guide in English. Our boat was ready and docked near the entrance of the harbor, just in front of the Capitainerie (Port Captain’s office). It was well equipped, including a GPS chartplotter and an excellent freezer/refrigerator. There were only the two of us for crew at the beginning but we were to pick up another couple in Cannes.
After a nice lunch at the Les Voiliers restaurant (€ 50 for two with wine), we went grocery shopping for € 150 at the Huit à Huit supermarket, a few hundred yards from the base. They delivered the groceries to the boat without problem.
That night, we walked around trying to select a restaurant from the many along the harbor. Nita had a pizza and Jacques a 'friture' (small fried fish) with lettuce, all for € 25 with wine.
May 4 – Hyères to St Tropez via Cavalière
Monday morning, we left Hyères harbor at 10h30 and motored to Baie de Cavalière, facing 25 knots of easterly winds. We arrived at 13h00 and dropped the hook for lunch.
We left again at 14h00 for more leisurely motoring, arriving at St Tropez around 18h00. We were instructed to dock stern to, med-style on Dock A near the entrance of the harbor. We had no problem docking, being helped by a friendly English couple next to us. We stayed two nights at € 37.50 per night, water and electricity included.
We were told that French law requires all ports to make available free water and to let visiting boats stay for free for at least 2 hours for provisioning.
May 5 – Port de St Tropez
The day was spent relaxing, dining and shopping in famous St Tropez. We admired mega yachts and picturesque fishing boats in the harbor. After a nice lunch in the center of town, in Place des Lices (Jousting Plaza), we went shopping at the well-stocked Monoprix supermarket and did our email at a cybercafé nearby.
We also explored the outdoor market on Place des Lices and bought beautiful Provençal fabric for only € 3 per meter.
May 6 – St Tropez to Fréjus
This morning we left St Tropez at 10h00 and motored to Port Grimaud at the bottom of the Gulf of St Tropez. This is a well designed town/marina built in the 70s to accommodate yachting vacationers. We wanted to visit and look at real estate prices but there was a strong 20-25 knots side wind that made it impossible for us to dock. That’s when we realized that a 46-ft sailboat is a big boat in small Mediterranean harbors.
This was confirmed soon after when we tried to stop at the small harbor of San Peyre-Les Issambres. The guest dock was occupied by a large power boat and the harbormaster told us to dock at the fuel dock that was closed for lunch. Unfortunately, as we were getting ready for our lunch, a dive boat came in and asked us to move out in order to let the divers out. We took off again and tried to enter Port St Raphaél-Santa Lucia marina but they were under repair and had no dock space for our size boat anyway.
We continued motoring with 35 knots of wind on the nose and arrived around 15h00 at Port de Fréjus. Again the harbor was full, but the friendly port captain was very helpful. He came out in his patrol boat and helped us get into a tight place near the boardwalk for one night. This turned into two nights due to continuing heavy weather outside. It was a great people watching place and steps away from excellent restaurants.
May 7 – Port de Fréjus
After doing our laundry in a laundromat around the corner, we walked to the town of Fréjus. It’s a couple of miles away from the harbor. We toured the town that was founded by the Romans and visited the local history museum.
That evening we had an excellent dinner for € 45 at Le César, just in front of our boat.
May 8 – Fréjus to Cannes
Thursday turned out to be calm, sunny and beautiful but … no wind. We left at 7h30 and motored along the beautiful coast of the Estérel mountains, arriving in Cannes at 11h00.
The port captain told us to dock at Quai St Pierre. This turned out to be a great location in the old harbor, in the heart of town and next to gorgeous classic sailboats. We were facing the Méridien hotel where the rooms rent for € 600 a night. Our dock fees were only € 34 a night.
This was the week before the Cannes Film Festival and the town was full of beautiful and not-so-beautiful people. We rented a car for € 32/day and went to the Nice airport to pick up our new crew.
May 9 – Port de Cannes
We let our crew relax for the day and used the rental car to go grocery shopping at a large Intermarché supermarket. In the afternoon, we took the little tourist train to visit the town.
May 10 – Iles de Lérins
We had a great day sail to the two islands, Sainte Marguerite and St Honorat, both only a few miles from Cannes.
The two islands are separated by the Plateau du Milieu, a shallow strait with easing anchoring. In the summer, there are hundreds of boats of all sizes at anchor but today there were only half a dozen.
Ile Saint Honorat is a peaceful island with a monastery from the 4th century. We toured the island and arrived at the beautiful little church just in time for the 11h00 Sunday mass.
After lunch on the boat, we motored to Ile Sainte Marguerite. We visited the old fort, where the famous Man with the Iron Mask was imprisoned by Louis XIV.
We returned to our dock space in Cannes. For dinner, we went to a pizzeria in front of the boat (€ 55 for four with wine).
May 11 – Cannes to Baie de Villefranche
Sunday was gorgeous sailing in sunny weather. We left at 10h00 after checking out with the Capitainerie. We dropped the hook for lunch at the point of Cap d’Antibes in the beautiful little bay of Faux Argent, accessible only by boat (unless you own property!).
In the afternoon, we motored along the coast to Baie de Villefranche, bypassing Nice. In the Baie de Nice, we watched French Canadair aircraft practicing their fire fighting techniques. They fly low above the water to scoop it up and then fly off to drop it in the mountains.
We arrived at 16h00 in the Baie de Villefranche where we anchored in front of the pink Rockefeller villa. This is a huge bay where the US Mediterranean VII fleet used to be based. We took the dinghy ashore and visited the town museum and a large-scale photo exhibit.
May 12 – Baie de Villefranche to Monaco and Nice
Monday was also gorgeous with a nice wind for sailing. We stayed close to the coast, admiring the fancy villas and hotels. It took us only an hour and we arrived at Monaco around 11h00. The Port Captain let us dock for free among the mega yachts for a few hours. It was the week before the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco and the construction crews were busy erecting the viewing stands for the race. We had lunch ashore and went to the Casino for gambling but were disappointed to find out that the blackjack tables didn’t open until 17h00.
We were planning to sail back to Nice for our crew to catch their evening plane. However, as we were going to leave the harbor at 14h00, we found out that the entrance was closed by the harbor police. There was a threat of pollution from a passing boat that had been outgassing its tanks offshore.
Since the port captain couldn’t tell us when it would re-open, our crew decided to jump ship and take the shuttle bus to the airport, where they arrived safely and in time for their plane.
Shortly after they left, a mega yacht with a helicopter pad came out. The police opened the anti-pollution barrier and we quickly followed them out. We didn’t see any sign of pollution outside.
It took us only one hour to sail to Nice harbor. We got a free dock at the Moorings base, where they refilled our tanks and fixed minor problems.
In the evening, we did our email on the Internet and walked over to Cours Saleya, where we had our pick of dozens of restaurants. We had a nice fish dinner at Chez Bacco (€ 44) and walked back on the beautiful pedestrian walkway along the sea cliffs.
May 13 – Nice to Antibes
In the morning, we went to visit the city. There was a national strike protesting the government plan to raise the retirement age. There was a long march in the center of the town, with peaceful strikers and relaxed police watching them (they’re used to it!). Traffic was bad and it took us a while to come back by taxi.
We again had a wonderful lunch at a harbor restaurant called L’Escale, specializing in mussels (€ 30 for two).
We sailed off at 15h00 toward Antibes, arriving at 17h00. We docked in a nice spot (€ 42) between two large power boats.
We were close to the old town and we visited in the evening, after dinner on the boat. Antibes is so full of Brits that the bars near the harbor serve only pints of ale instead of the traditional French demis of beer.
May 14 (I)– Antibes to St Tropez
We left Antibes at 9h00 under calm weather. However, the wind picked up until we had 30-35 knots of wind in the Gulf of St Tropez. This is the famous Mistral wind. It is stronger in Provence, near Marseille and Toulon and tapers off further East. They say it lasts either 3 days or 8 days.
We docked at the same place we were a week before, again with the help of the same friendly British liveaboards. It was still blowing 30 knots in the harbor and we had to be careful walking down the floating docks.
We went ashore for dinner and to get away from the wind. We were lucky as the wind died around midnight and we had a nice sleep.
May 14 (II)– St Tropez to Porquerolles
After shopping for groceries at the Monoprix in town and doing our email on the Internet, we left the harbor at 11h00.
We had a relaxed sail to Ile de Port-Cros where we didn’t stop and to Ile de Porquerolles.
There was plenty of room at the dock (€ 42) and we found ourselves next to another couple from California. We had dinner at a nice restaurant overlooking the beach (€ 60).
May 15 – Porquerolles to Hyères
In the morning, we went ashore and rented two dirt bikes to go to the beautiful Plage d’Argent. After lunch on the boat, we had a nice sail back to The Moorings base in Hyères. We docked in the same place we had left two weeks earlier, in front of the Capitainerie.
Using the Internet, we rented an Avis car for a week (€320) for a leisurely trip back to Paris. The first night, we stayed at the Hôtel du Casino in Hy_res. The room was very nice but the hotel was difficult to find. The parking lot is under the casino and not well marked.
The next day, we visited Marseille and had bouillabaisse on the Vieux Port. We spent the night in Cassis at the Hôtel du Golfe, overlooking the harbor (€ 75). Our room was painted blue and yellow and looked like the famous Van Gogh painting. In the morning, we visited the beautiful calanques on a tour boat.
Comments
This trip was more of a tourist trip than true sailing. The wind was either too much or too little for much real sailing.
If possible, we recommend two weeks for an enjoyable vacation. If only one week is possible, we would recommend sailing from Nice rather than Hyéres, for better weather and more destinations.
You can sail and eat late in Europe in spring time since sunset is usually not until 9 to 10 PM.
Our 46-ft sailboat was great to handle the heavy winds but too big for many of the small harbors.
We enjoyed touring the beautiful Riviera and seeing it from a different point of view, especially being free of the problems associated with hotels, cars or tour buses. The people we met were friendly. There was no problem speaking English in any of the tourist areas.